A Rose Between Worlds
by WannabeAHLad
Summary: With her Crescent Rose stolen by a mysterious masked figure, Ruby winds up in a dark parallel world where the parallel version of the people she knows, friends and foes, have misfortune falling upon them. As she searches for her weapon and a way back home, she spends her time helping the people of this new world. In the meantime, the masked figure has terrible plans for this world.
1. A New World

**Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.**

**A/N: Some aspects from this story, especially the start, is derived from the awesome game known as Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Just know that the story is in no way similar to LoZMM.**

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><p>Ruby Rose, a second-year huntress-in-training from Beacon, trekked along a vast forest, far away from Vale. While Beacon endorsed huntsmen and huntresses working together in teams, they felt that students also need experience with fighting alone since they won't always have a partner to rely on. Ruby chose to go on an extermination mission situated in the forest she is currently located.<p>

She continued walking, keeping her guard up. The forest was thick with fog; it was hard to see a few yards away from her. It's been awhile since she has seen any signs of a Grimm. She was starting to wonder if she had killed all of the monsters in the area. She walked for a few more minutes. Nothing but silence with the exception of her footsteps.

A sound of rustling caught her attention, but before she could examine what it was, something hit her hard in the back of her head, knocking her out cold. From the dense fog approached a figure covered with a hooded, gray cloak and wearing a simple mask with a question mark painted onto it.

The masked stranger observed Ruby before carefully approaching the unconscious girl. Moving slowly, she grabbed Crescent Rose and released its scythe form. "Ooooh!" the stranger said in awe. Grasping it tightly, the stranger swung it around a few times, laughing as he or she did so. After a few swings, the cloaked figure noticed a lever on it. Grabbing hold onto it and pulling it back, Crescent Rose shot out one of the bullets that were loaded into it. "That's so cool," proclaimed the stranger, her voice sounds feminine.

She went back to the unconscious Ruby and grabbed all of the rounds she had on her before returning to playing around with Crescent Rose some more. "This will work just fine." She didn't realize however after firing off a few more shots, Ruby woke up. Getting back up, Ruby noticed the stranger holding her precious weapon.

Finally sensing that someone was staring at her, she turned to find Ruby looking at her angrily. Quickly looking between her and the scythe, the masked girl quickly folded the scythe back up in a futile attempt to hide it behind her back.

Stepping forward, Ruby asked politely, "Please give my Crescent Rose back."

The stranger stepped back then started fleeing.

"Oh, no you don't!" Ruby shouted, chasing after her assailant leaving a trail of rose petals behind her.

The hooded figure, noticing that Ruby was gaining on her, sped up herself.

"What the…? Does she have a speed semblance as well?"

After chasing her over a long distance, the masked girl ran into a cave. Even though the smartest thing to do would avoid entering the cave, she needed to get her precious weapon back so Ruby followed in after her.

Upon entering the cave, she lost sight of the person she was chasing. Figuring there was nowhere else to go, she kept proceeding down the cave. After walking for what seems like an eternity, the natural walls of the cave gradually changed into man made wall of a hallway like structure. What waited before Ruby was something completely strange to her.

On the floor of this hallway was covered by a red carpet. The part of the hallway before her was twisted to where it appeared that the floor turned into the ceiling and vice versa, and the carpet kept going along the ceiling. Not letting this deter her from her mission to recover Crescent Rose, she kept moving forward. The weirdest part was that no matter how far forward she walked and how twisted the hallway got, she managed to stand firmly on the carpet. It was as if gravity was changing its orientation along with the hallway. Looking behind her, the flooring that she was just on a minute ago had turned into a ceiling. "Whoa. That is so cool!" exclaimed Ruby. "The girls back at Beacon are never going to believe this though." Facing forward again, she continued on.

The hallway eventually leaded to a room that looked like some sort of basement. Feeling the earth shaking, she looked behind her. The ceiling off the hallway behind her had collapsed, preventing her from going back. "Oh, no! How am I going to get back now?" Ruby looked around, finding some stairs leading upward to a door, she said, "Well, I'll just have to worry about that later."

She went up the stairs and through the door, entering what appears to be an assembly hall of a cathedral. No one was around. Finding a huge set of doors, presumably the exit, she walked out of the hall.

Ruby was greeted by a city, one that was in no way similar to Vale. There was no steel skyscrapers, all of the building were either one or two stories tall and made out of bricks. There were no concrete roads with cars driving on them; there were only brick roads that people walked on and with an occasional chariot every now and then. The road lights had no light bulbs but rather a lantern. Looking behind her, Ruby saw that she had indeed just walked out of a cathedral.

"Where am I?" she asked no one in particular. "This looks like a city from the past."

Ruby raised her foot and slowly moved it forward, thinking in her head _'One small step for Girl, one giant leap for Ruby Rose.' _Stepping her foot down, and slowly gaining the courage to move on, Ruby walked off into this strange new town.

Taking in the sight with awe, Ruby saw people building stands around what appears to be a market place and placing decorations all across walls and in the open area. If she didn't know better, it would look like they're getting ready for a festival. Continuing on walking and taking into the sights, she didn't notice she was on a collision course with another person and bumped right into him. She fell down, but the man managed to keep his stance.

Sitting up, Ruby rubbed the back of her head. She heard a familiar voice say, "I am sorry, Miss. I should've been more careful." She looked up and saw a man that she recognized as Roman Torchwick, who was offering out his hand to help her up. Roman was wearing an outfit similar to his regular attire, but his coat was black instead of white.

"Roman Torchwick!" Ruby exclaimed jumping up.

"You know my name?" asked Roman.

"Don't play dumb with me! Did you forget that one time I stopped you from robbing that old guy's store?"

Roman gave her a look of disbelief. "That's preposterous! I am a man of the people! I detest criminals!" Ruby looked in the guy's eyes, and she could see that they were genuinely filled with sincerity towards his statement. Was this man really Roman Torchwick?

Whatever the case, she now felt awkward. Putting on a smile she apologized. "I'm sorry. I must've confused you with someone else. Silly old me can get people mixed up sometimes."

Another girl walked up. She had pink and brown colored hair and eyes. Ruby recognized this girl. She was Torchwick's newest henchman, Neo. The multi-colored haired girl was wearing a black suit and had her hair tied up into a ponytail. Neo said, "Detective Torchwick, we need to hurry on over to the crime scene. The Yard won't be too please if we take too long to get there."

"Oh, right! Thank you, Neo." Giving a kindhearted smile to Ruby, he said "Take care, young lady. I've got some business to take care of. Be careful about watching where you're going." Roman and Neo ran off.

Standing there still dumbfounded, Ruby said quietly to herself, "What the hell was that? That was definitely Roman and Neo I just met, but they were polar opposites of the ones I know. Did I end up in a parallel world or something?" She was joking about that last part

Ruby continued marching south until she came across a 10 meter tall wall. She looked around, and the wall had no end in sight. In front of her was an armored knight guarding the only exit in this section of the wall. Wanting to see what the guard would do, she tried to exit the wall, but the guard got in her way.

The guard said, "I am sorry, young lady, but I can't permit you to leave the city"

"Why not," she asked.

The soldier was honestly surprised. "I find it hard to believe you don't know why. There are monsters lurking all over the lands outside of these walls. By the law, I can't let you leave these walls without a weapon."

"Alright," she said in defeat. Retreating back to the city's major marketplace, she sat down in a bench. It was getting close to dusk. Looking around, Ruby saw many familiar faces running around. Cardin Winchester and the old guy from the dust shop, to name a couple. She even saw Cinder Fall being followed closely by Emerad, as well as several kids she knew from Signal Academy. Maybe this really was, a parallel world.

"It has to be," she spoke quietly to herself. "There are so many people here that have the same faces as the people I know, but are living completely different lives." She let her head drop. "Even then, what am I going to do about food, a place to stay, getting back to Vale, and even retrieving Crescent Rose?!"

She sat there for a while contemplating her situation. "Ruby?!" asked a familiar feminine voice. Standing before Ruby was a girl with long white hair tied back into a ponytail on her right side with her bang siting freely and blue eyes. She was wearing a casual white T-shirt as well as a blue skirt that reached down to her knees. The most noticeable feature about her though was the vertical scar going over her left eye.

"W-Weiss?!"

Tears started building up in Weiss's eyes. "You dolt?! Where have you been?!" Grabbing her hand and dragging her along, she exclaimed, "The others will really want to see you!"

Ruby was speechless. Here she is, in a strange old town, seeing doubles of all of the people she knows, and she happened to meet Weiss's, her best friend's, double not long after her arrival.

They finally arrived at a place called "Junior's". They went inside, and right at the entrance was a stairway leading down to a bar which had a little stage at the far end of it. After descending the stairs, Ruby found a blonde bartender with her back turned towards them with a brunette who was also in a bartender outfit sitting on a stool close by.

Weiss called out, "Yang! Blake! I found Ruby!" The blonde tensed up, and the brunette turned around, turning out to be the girl Ruby recognizes as Blake.

Standing up and smiling, Blake said, "Ruby! It's been so long!"

The blonde slowly turned around, revealing herself to be Yang. Taking a good look at Ruby, she smiled with tears forming in her eyes. Jumping over the bar, she ran to Ruby and embraced her in a huge bear hug. "Ruby! It's been so long! I've missed you!"

Ruby was about to hug her sister's double back, but the blonde suddenly pulled back, not looking down enough to where her bangs covered her eyes. "Something's not right." The three other looked at Yang curiously, wondering what she meant. "Something didn't feel right when I hugged you. Call it a sister's intuition." Yang looked at Ruby in the eyes. "You look like her, but you can't be the Ruby we know. Just who are you?"

Weiss and Blake looked at Ruby suspiciously. Ruby, however, just stood there silently, processing all of the damning evidence that has been presented before her. She finally answered, "I AM Ruby Rose, but I am not YOUR Ruby Rose." She looked down, feeling a bit depressed. "Just like you guys aren't MY Weiss, Blake, and Yang."

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><p><strong>Alright, there's the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. If you like it, a review, fav, or follow would be very much appreciated.<strong>


	2. A Night at Junior's

The four girls sat down at the bar in "Junior's." Ruby, Weiss, and Blake were sitting on the stools while Yang scrubbed the counter. Ruby had told them everything: that she is a huntress-in-training studying at Beacon, her team is composed of the parallel version of the three of them, and she was recently on an extermination mission when Crescent Rose was stolen and she ended up in what she believes to be a parallel world while pursuing the thief. Weiss, Yang, and Blake sat their taking in all of the information she had given them.

The brunette was the one to break the silent. "I have to admit that this story does seem a little farfetched. A parallel world with counterparts of ourselves? It's all just sort of incredible if you ask me." Ruby noticed that unlike her Blake, this Blake didn't wear a bow and displayed her cat ears proudly.

She replied, "Quite honestly, I'm not surprised that you're finding a hard time believing me. I had a hard time believing it when I first arrived here."

Weiss interjected, "But you do have to admit, incredible or not, it's fascinating, the idea that there is another world similar to our own." Weiss turned to face her blonde friend. "What about you, Yang? We haven't gotten your input yet."

Pulling out a glass mug and starting to clean it, she said, "The idea that there is a world parallel to our own is so illogical that our brains first reaction is to reject that idea, but…" Still cleaning the glass she looked at Ruby in the eye, and she looked her back in the eye. Yang smiled. "I decided to believe her. Even though she's not her, she has that exact damn same cute earnest look my little sister gets when she's telling the truth." The cloaked girl smiled happily. "So, Ruby, what are you going to do while you're here?"

Ruby's smile disappeared. "I don't know. I can't go back until I retrieve my Crescent Rose, but I don't even know where the thief went, and I can't leave this town without a weapon in the first place. The worst part is that I don't have a place to stay or money."

"Well, you could stay with us," suggested Yang. "You can stay with us in our apartment while you look for your Crescent Rose and a way back home."

"Oh, no. I don't want to impose."

Weiss said, "Well, how about this. You can stay with us as long as you help us run the bar at night. With our festival coming up in about a week, we'll be pretty busy for a while with all of the tourists from the four other cities coming to celebrate. You can even keep the money you earn while working here."

Ruby asked, "Do you really think that your boss will let me work here. I'm still only 16."

Yang replied, "Ruby, I don't know how things work in your world, but most of our drinks here have some alcohol in them. The only drink that doesn't is milk and people only drink that until they're around 14-15. Trust me, here, you're old enough to work in a bar."

Ruby nodded. "Alright then. I'll take you up on your offer. But I have just one question."

"What is it?"

"If I am going to be staying here for a while, could you tell me about this place and its customs?"

Blake answered, "Alright. I should probably tell you about this place first. You are currently within the small country of Remnant. There are five major town and five major landforms. This town here is Remnant Town, the capitol of our nice little province which has a nice grassy plain surrounding us. To the south, there is Vacuo which is surrounded by a huge forest. To the east is where the mountains are and also where Vale is located. The north is a frozen tundra where Atlas resides, and in the west is a vast desert where far enough back an oasis has been turned into the center for the town of Mistral."

In her mind, Ruby made a remark about how crazy it is that the towns here are named after the kingdoms of her world. "So, what's this festival all about?"

Weiss replied, "A long time ago, this small country used to be four smaller countries, and back then there was an everlasting all-out war between the nations. The towns surrounding us are named from their country of origin. Mistral and Atlas were mostly comprised of Faunus, and Vale and Vacuo were mostly humans. The war went on for centuries, with all sides forgetting the reason they were fighting for. A couple of centuries ago, all sides finally put aside their differences and signed a treaty and agreed to form the country of Remnant. Ever since then, Remnant has always thrown a festival on the date of the signing of the peace treaty as a celebration for the end of that war."

Before they could continue their conversation any further, the girls heard the door open and close. A man in a suit with short black hair and beard descended down the stairs. Ruby recognized him as Junior. She remembered showing up at Junior's bar in her world when Yang beat the crap out of him looking for intel. Junior walked down saying, "Alright, girls, more tourists have entered town throughout the day, so as the best bar in town, we'll be busier tonight, so I want you to…" Junior trailed off as he saw his three employees were sitting with an unknown girl. "Umm… Who is this?"

Yang replied, "This is Ruby Rose, a friend of ours who moved to town today, and she needs a place to work. Is it alright if she works here?"

Junior contemplated for a minute before replying, "Sure. She can work here." He walks up to her. "Can you start tonight, or do you need to work on getting settled in?"

She nodded. "I can start now."

"Good. You can go ahead and get to work. You can help Yang run the counter." Junior offered his new employee a handshake, which she accepted. "It's great to have you as a part of the team. With the festival coming around, we need all of the help we can get."

Yang pulled out a bartender outfit and placed it on the counter, saying, "Welcome aboard. Looking forward to working with you."

Ruby grabbed the bartender outfit. "Thanks."

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><p>Within the first hour of opening, the place was already packed. Yang and Ruby were serving beverages at the bar. Junior was running around as a cocktail server, and Weiss and Blake were in a kitchen cooking some food for their customers. As she continued working, the young huntress-in-training had one thing bugging her mind. What happened to this world's Ruby? The way the others have been acting, it seems as if she had gone missing a long time ago. She really wants to ask them about her, but she's been avoiding the topic as to not bring up something unpleasant for them.<p>

"Hey, aren't you the girl who ran into me earlier today?" Ruby finally noticed that Roman and Neo had entered the bar. The two of them took a seat where Ruby was at.

"Yes, I was. Sorry about that."

The man just waved it off. "Don't worry about it, these things happen."

"So can I get you and your friend anything?"

Roman shook his head. "No, thanks. I'm still on duty. Best get the job done sober. I'm just here to speak to Junior about something, as soon as he becomes available."

"Alright." Ruby was about to walk off, but something clicked in her head. "Hey. Since you're a detective, you must know about plenty of things going on around Remnant, right?"

Nodding, Roman asked, "Why do you ask?"

"Have you heard any news about a person wearing a grey cloak and a mask with a question mark painted on it?"

Neo asked, "We might have? What's it to you?"

"That person has stolen something very precious to me. I want to retrieve it."

The detective said, "I don't know if I should tell you. I wouldn't want you to put yourself at risk."

Ruby sighed. "Alright, I admit I might be a bit clumsy at times, but when it comes to fighting, I am more than capable of taking care of myself. Can you please just tell me?"

Roman and Neo looked at each other before the former sighed in defeat. "Alright. I'll tell you, but please don't do anything stupid."

"Thank you."

Roman leaned for and signaled Ruby to lean forward as well, which she did. Roman stated in a quiet tone, "There have been some sightings of this masked person all over Remnant. Most of the sighting have occurred near the four other towns in the country, but there have hardly ever been any sightings here in Remnant Town. There have been rumors that this masked person is a part of some sort of an occult group. But since that person in question have never been officially seen and since the only people who have claimed to have seen them only caught a glimpse of them, most people consider that person to be a myth."

Ruby asked, "So what do you think? Do you think they're real or just a myth."

Roman replied. "Considering that you say that you actually met this masked individual, I am more than certain that they exist. Tell you what, since I like you, when I find the time, I'll look into this individual for you to see what I can find. Right now, however, the all I can say is that if you want to find them, you're going to have to check around the four other towns."

The young girl smiled. "Thank you. The next time you stop by as a customer, your first drink is on me."

"I'll look forward towards that." Roman and his friend got up from their seats. "Alright, Neo. Let's go talk with Junior."

"Yes sir."

"See you around, Red." With that, they two detectives left. The Roman Torchwick from this world sure is nice. For some reason, Ruby found herself wishing that his counterpart in her world was even half as nice.

Yang walked up and asked Ruby, "What was that all about?"

She just shrugged. "Oh, nothing. Just chatting with a new friend I made today."

It was getting close to morning, and everyone had finally left the bar. Yang had called all of the girls together splitting up the tips evenly between them. Ruby got a big stack of money. "Whoa, that's a load of money." Thinking about it for a sec, she asked the others, "This is a lot of money, right?"

Blake laughed. "Yes it is. The best part about this being the busiest time of the year is that the tips also come in in such a huge quantity."

Weiss explained, "That there is 115 Sinels. You can acquire some decent things with that money."

Yang grabbed Ruby's hand. "Enough about that. Let's go home." She dragged the huntress along to go to their apartment followed by the other two girls.

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><p>Inside of an abandoned temple situated high up in the mountains, sat a man with messy light-gray hair, a green scarf, and glasses. He looked up at a statue of a woman which had its head broken off and lying next to its feet. He had a look of sorrow, but that look disappeared as he heard the sound of steps coming from behind. The masked figure with Crescent Rose had entered the room. "Oh, so you have returned. Did things go well?"<p>

The masked individual sat down next to the man. "Yes it did. I managed to obtain this neat scythe-looking weapon, and all of these look capsules that you can load in it and fire it. It's like a portable cannon." She pulled out some of Ruby's stolen bullets. "The best part is," she opened one of the bullets carefully to reveal a red shiny powder inside, "all of these capsules are full of Dust."

The man looked at the bullet intrigued. "Fascinating. Isn't Dust extremely rare and almost impossible to obtain?"

She shook her head. "Apparently not where I went. Dust must be more available where I had gone."

"Well, why don't you go back there and get some more?"

"I can't. They way back had mysteriously become blocked off. It would take too much time and effort to clear it up. We would very likely be discovered before we could get the task done."

He crossed his arms. "Well, that is a bit disappointing."

"Indeed. So how did things go on your end?"

"Good. I managed to capture a handful of monsters as well as a giant Nevermore that has been living around here and my men are taking them back to base at the border. We should be ready to advance with our plans here in a couple of months."

She chuckled. "That's great. You've done a good job, Mr. Ozpin."

Ozpin smiled. "Thank you."

Standing up, the masked one said, "Come one. Let's get out of here. This place is depressing."


	3. The Sorrow of Arc

**BETA READER WANTED! If any of you are interested for being a beta reader for this story and/or "Red Roses and White Snowflakes" (when I can finally get over my writers block for that story) just send me a PM. I'm looking with anyone who is good with story and character development and knows their grammar.**

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><p>Weiss Schnee marched back and forth in Team RWBY's dorm. Ruby, their team leader, was supposed to have returned from her extermination mission a couple of days ago, but she hasn't returned yet. In fact, Ozpin called the team up the other day and reported to them that Ruby was M.I.A. There was nothing found at the mission site that could even support that she had died. It was as if she had disappeared from the face of the planet. What happened to their team leader? And why is she getting so worked up over this? She's been taking this incident much harder than Yang has, Ruby's own sister.<p>

Weiss really wants to go out and search for her friend, but Ozpin won't let them go, claiming that his men will find her soon. She seriously doubted that. It was so infuriating, being stuck at the academy and not being able to do anything to help. She pulled out her scroll in what she knew would be a futile attempt to contact Ruby. She called, and, of course, no signal. "Damn it!" Weiss shouted, throwing her scroll at the hall with enough force that it shattered. In an attempt to calm down, she sat down.

After a few minutes, she heard a knock at the door. She groaned angrily. Upon opening the door, she was greeted by Jaune Arc. "What?!"

Jaune, oblivious to the annoyance in her voice, said, "Hey, Weiss. You know that popular new movie that's been released in theatres recently, it just so happens I have two tickets to this afternoon screening. Would you like to accompany me?"

Weiss replied, "The answer is 'no' for two reason. One, my team leader is missing, I am a little too preoccupied about this incident that I don't have time to go to the stupid movie. Two, and I can't stress this enough, I don't want to go out with you!" With that, the heiress slammed the door in his face. Starting to feel slightly better, she noted that even though Jaune may not be her best of friends, he is a good medium for her to vent her anger out on.

Jaune sighed, lowering his head in sorrow and disappointment, he walked down the hall. He knows he's probably the last man that would have a chance with Weiss, but he feels like he still has to try. He just wishes that she wouldn't be so harsh on him. Turning the corner, he came across his red-haired and green-eyed teammate, Pyrrha. The tall huntress said, "You know, Jaune. I've been wanting to see that movie myself."

"Well then, here you go." Jaune put a couple of tickets into Pyrrha's hand and continued walking.

"Jaune, I…" She wanted to tell Jaune that she wanted to go to the movies with him, but for some reason she just couldn't build up the courage to tell him. When he was out of sight, she slumped against the wall, a single teardrop rolling down her cheek. "Jaune, you are such an idiot…"

Nora appeared out of nowhere, looking at her friend sympathetically. "I'm surprised, really, Pyrrha. Even though you're this brave, amazing, bad-ass huntress, you still can't bring yourself to admit your feelings to a boy like Jaune."

Pyrrha just shrugged. "What can I say? I may be a strong huntress on the outside, but deep inside, I'm still just a shy little girl."

Nora grabbed Pyrrha's hand. "Come on! Let's go see that movie together!"

"Wouldn't you rather go with Ren instead? You can have the tickets." The amazon held out the ticket, offering them to her teammate.

The eccentric huntress didn't reply immediately. Pyrrha could've sworn that Nora looked a little hurt before she turned back to her usual cheery self. "Nah. Ren isn't very interested in going to see movies. Beside, you and I should spend some more time with each other. Plus, I'm pretty sure I can turn that frown upside down." Nora started to drag Pyrrha along, who pleaded for her to let her go claiming that she would be right behind her. Nora just laughed as they went on, and Pyrrha was already starting to feel a little cheered up. She was glad she has a friend like Nora.

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><p>Meanwhile, in the parallel world. Ruby walked across town, looking at all of the different shops they had. She's been here for a few of days now, and she has earned a good out of money from tips alone. The festival was due to start in four days. As much as she wanted to find the person who stole her Crescent Rose and get home, she wanted to see this festival that they are putting together. She came to a stop when she found a blacksmith.<p>

She entered the building and found weapons all over the place. She almost started drooling just seeing all of the weapons in there. There were swords, mace, clubs, spears, bows and arrows and battle axes, but no scythe. She was disappointed about that fact. As she browsed the weapons, a big, brawny man, the blacksmith, approached her. "Hello there, lil' lady. How may I assist you today?"

Ruby asked, "Oh, yes. Don't you have any huge scythes? You know, something that would be used by a grim reaper in stories."

The blacksmith shook his head. "I'm sorry, but those aren't usually in high demand, so I don't make them. But even then, I don't think I would sell one to ye."

"And why not?" she asked, offended.

"I work with the military; I supply all of their weapons. I don't think they would be all too pleased with me selling a weapon to an inexperienced kid."

"INEXPERIENCED KID?!" she shouted as loud as she could with anger. "I may still be a little young, but I have experiences with weapons! Loan me a weapon, and I'll show you what I can do!"

"That's against store policies. Come back when you're a little older."

Ruby left the store slamming the door behind her. She made it her mission today to find another weapon store that could help her obtain a weapon, but she couldn't find any other blacksmith in the entire town. "Damn," she muttered.

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><p>A little while later, Ruby arrived at a park located just a couple of blocks north of the cathedral she entered this world from. In the park, there was a group of soldiers gathered around watching something. Making her way through the crowd, she found two soldiers sparring against each other. One of which was she recognized as her friend Jaune Arc. She watched the two of them fight each other as all of the guards cheered on, some cheering for Jaune, other cheering for his opponent. As they fought, Ruby noted that the blonde's fighting style was filled with anger and aggression. Was he angry at his opponent perhaps?<p>

The soldier knocked Jaune's sword out of his hand and kicked him down to the ground. The blonde was defeated. The winning soldier offered his hand to help up his sparring partner, but Jaune just merely slapped his hand away, stood up, and marched of furiously. Ruby thought out loud, "What's his problem?"

One of the soldiers standing next to her heard her and answered, "He's been down in the dumps ever since his closest friend died a few weeks ago."

Ruby felt so much sorrow for Jaune, and she has a good idea who this friend was, but she wanted to hear the rest of the story. Looking up at the soldier, it turned out to be Cardin Winchester. She wondered if he was as big of a jerk on this side as he is on the other. Putting that fact aside, she asked him, "Can you tell me more?"

Cardin looked around, making sure the angry blonde was nowhere around. "Sure, but if he asks, you didn't hear it from me, got it?" Ruby nodded. "Well, you see, a few weeks ago, he and his friend were assigned on a scouting mission outside of the walls, clear up a path for some import carriages ahead of time. What the two of them didn't expect was the massive number of monsters waiting along the path. As a result from the battle, his friend was severely wounded; she had sacrificed herself for him. He tried to bring her back as fast as he could so she could receive medical attention, but she died of blood loss right as they reached the gates of the wall."

Another soldier that Ruby recognized as Russel Trush approached them and added, "We've been trying to help him move past this unfortunate incident these past few weeks, but no matter what we did, he wouldn't cheer up."

She asked, "This friend of his, what was her name?"

Cardin replied, "Pyrrha Nikos." Even though she had her suspicions, it was still shocking and sad to hear the truth. All of sudden, Cardin started laughing lightly. "Forgive me, but I don't even know why I'm telling you this. I mean, you are an outsider." He studied the girl for a minute. "But for some reason, just by looking at you I get this feeling like you can help Jauney-boy. Will you help Jauney-boy?"

Ruby honestly isn't surprised that Cardin is acting like this here, she's gotten used to how the people in this world are so much different than the ones in her world. She smiled kind-heartedly. "I'll try my best."

"Thank you. What's your name, Miss?"

"I'm Ruby Rose."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Cardin Winchester, and this little idiot next to me is Russel Trush."

"Hey! I am not an idiot!" The smaller soldier shouted.

"Anyway, we got to get back to work before our captain scolds us again. See you around." With that, the two soldiers walked off.

Ruby waved bye to the two soldiers, finding it weird that she has befriended two guys that were bullies from her world. Now she had to find a way to help Jaune get back on his feet. That's going to be easier said than done.

* * *

><p>That night, Ruby was working at the bar alone. Apparently Junior's take orders and they deliver their products to the time and place specified for the order. Yang was currently out on a delivery, which is why Ruby was running the bar alone. As she started cleaning up a glass that was left behind, Jaune Arc entered the tavern and took a seat at the bar. She approached the soldier, asking, "What can I get for you, sir?"<p>

He just replied, "Some rum would be nice."

"Coming right up."

Ruby pulled out a bottle of rum and as well as a mug that has already been cleaned. "Umm, you can forget the mug. I'll just take the entire bottle."

She sighed. "I know it's my job to sell drink, but I just got to say, you just can't try to drink your sorrows away."

He forced out a laugh. "Hah! What makes you think I'm upset about anything?"

"I can see it in your eyes." He looked displeased now. Ruby looked at him seriously. "You can try to hide your thoughts by putting a mask over your face, but unless you have a heart made of steel your eyes will always betray you." He didn't reply. Even though that is not the real reason why she knows he's depressed, it's still a plausible reason. "So how about I pour you a glass and talk to me about what's eating you?"

"Well," he said, "I really don't want to talk about it. So how about you just give me the bottle and I don't report this to your manager."

_"Jeez,"_ thought Ruby, _"the Jaune on this side is a bit of an asshole. I wouldn't have thought that any version of him could ever be like that. But he is depressed, so that is excusable… to a point."_

"Fine." She slammed the bottle on the counter. "Enjoy your drink."

"Thank you." Jaune handed her the payment for the drink.

"But you haven't seen the last of me." She pointed at the soldier before walking off to help another customer.

"Oh joy," he muttered under his breath.

Meanwhile, Weiss had finished delivering an order to a table and was on her way back to the kitchen. She stopped for a minute to watch Ruby help a couple of customers with a big smile. She is so much like the Ruby she knows, but she isn't HER Ruby. She entered the kitchen and started working on another order while thinking about when Ruby started living with them a few days ago.

**-Flashback-**

The girls entered a small house located a block away from the wall on the western side of town with Yang still dragging Ruby along. "So, this is our apartment. You're new temporary place of residence." The room she had just entered was a big living room area with a kitchen in the back separated by a counter. There were also three doors leading to different rooms. "We also have two bedrooms, each with two beds. Blake and I sleep in that one over there, and you can stay with Weiss in the other one. That door over there leads to the bathroom."

Ruby smiled. "Thanks for letting me stay here."

Weiss replied, "Thanks for helping us run the tavern."

Ruby unhooked her hood and wrapped it up. "I think I'm going to go ahead and take a bath then go to sleep. I've had a long day, and I haven't slept in over 24 hours. I'm really tired," she said letting out a yawn afterwards.

Blake said, "Alright then. Make yourself at home."

A little while later, Ruby had crashed in the bed of her new room. Weiss, Blake, and Yang were watching her sleep before closing the door to her room to have a quiet conversation. Yang said, "It's funny how much she reminds us of our Ruby, huh?"

Blake nodded. "How long has it been?"

"2 years, 5 months, 9 days," replied Weiss with a hint of sorrow in her voice. "I've been keeping track, waiting for the day where she would hopefully return to us alive and in one piece."

The blonde said, "It sure has been hard on all of us, but Weiss, I think it's been hard on you most of all. You two grew so close together back then, closer than she and I have ever been."

"Yeah," the white-haired girl replied. "She's done so much for me. It pains me that I couldn't do much for her on that one day. It also hurts that she wouldn't even tell me why she did what she did."

"Thankfully, you-know-who couldn't figure anything out, or both Rubys would be in trouble right now."

The three of them sat in silence before Blake asked. "Do you think we'll ever see her again?"

Yang replied. "Sure we will."

Weiss looked out of the window, watching the sky become bluer as the sun rose. "I really hope so."

**-Flashback End-**

Weiss sighed and focused on cooking the food. Can't let Blake take on all of the work by herself.

Later, the four girls were on their way back home. Ruby was at the back of the group, watching the others walk forward. She wondered how her friends were doing back home. _"I bet everyone is freaking out,"_ thought Ruby. _"Yang especially."_ She caught herself paying a lot of attention to Weiss. Shaking her head, she wondered why she was focused on her white-haired friend. She also wonders what she was doing back in her world.

* * *

><p>It was late in the afternoon, Jaune was patrolling the city, making sure that no one was breaking the law. He was kind of wishing that someone would break the law, or at least start up a fight that he could break up. Just so he could have something to do rather than walk and watch. "Hey there, Angry Blondie." Jaune felt shivers run through his spine, jumping around to find the annoying bartender he met yesterday.<p>

"You? What are you doing here," he demanded.

Ruby smirked devilishly. "I told you that you haven't seen the last of me."

"Right."

"So, what's been eating ya, Blondie."

"Alright. First, my name is not Blondie. It's Jaune. Second, I told you that it is none of your business."

Ruby jumped in front of Jaune, keeping him from moving any further. "Oh, contraire, I've decided to make it my business."

"Why? Why are you so concerned about me? You don't even know me." The soldier was really wishing he had an excuse to arrest the girl right now, but unfortunately there is no law about not being able to show concern for someone else.

"I tell you what. If you tell me what's got you so depressed, I'll tell you why I keep trying to but in."

Jaune looked as if he was contemplating before he waved it off. "Nah. I don't care to know all that much. Now, please. Just leave me alone."

He pushed Ruby aside and went back on his control route.

Ruby huffed. "Alright. If talking to him won't work, then maybe a little action will get through his thick head."

* * *

><p>Weiss sat down on a chair to put on a pair of boots, getting ready to head into town herself. Yang asked, "Where are you going, Weissy?"<p>

The white haired girl shot her blonde friend a death glare. "First of all, I told you not to call me that lest you end up murdered in your sleep. Second, I'm going into town to find Ruby. She's always running around when we're not at work and when we're not sleeping. She must be getting pretty lonely; I just thought that I'd try to keep her company."

Blake added, "Are you sure that's not the ONLY reason you want to hang out with Ruby?"

She didn't reply. Getting up from her chair, she left the house only saying, "See you later."

"Think we should tag along?"

Yang shrugged. "Nah. I think we should let her be alone with Ruby."

"Very well."

* * *

><p>Ruby was standing against a light post in the park, watching everyone walk by. "So, how are things going with Jauney-boy?" asked a male's voice.<p>

Next to Ruby stood Cardin Winchester. "I had a feeling that you'd show up if I stayed her long enough," she stated slyly before turning to a more serious tone. "Not so good. That guy is really stubborn. I can't get him to talk to me. It's annoying really."

"So you couldn't do it?" He sighed in disappointment. "Well, thanks for trying."

He was about to walk off when she shouted out to him. "Hey! I didn't say I was done just yet. I'm determined now to get him out of this mean, depression thing he has going on. I just need a little help is all. Think you can give it to me?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

* * *

><p><strong>an: Alright, there's chapter 3. I hope you enjoyed, and if you did a review, fav, or follow is very much appreciated. From this point onward, I'm going to try to make the upcoming chapters long ones like this one, hopefully a little longer.**


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